These weeks ago, the advisers of Alberto Núñez feijoo downplayed Pedro’s good relationship Sanchez with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Layen, and with the chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz. They said at the Genoa headquarters that what really matters to them is that Feijóo is “loved by the Spaniards” –for now, in the polls– and not so much by foreign leaders. “Sánchez is going to Brussels to get some air. He flees from the harsh reality that he has in his country,” said a member of the PP leader’s team.
Tracing that language, it could be said that Feijóo is going to ‘catch air’ for a week in Latin America, where he will visit Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Ecuador. After suffering his first internal crisis due to how he managed the break with the government to negotiate the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), you may fancy that little ‘getaway’ between the 4th and 11th of this month.
The head of the conservatives will deliver lectures at universities in Montevideo, Santiago and Quito
Forgetting the analogy, it is usual for the leader of the Spanish opposition to make a tour of that region. It was made by the socialist José Luis Rodríguez Shoemaker (November 2003) and also the popular Mariano Rajoy (in December 2003 and December 2007). Now Feijóo joins that tradition, in which the two parties coincide by two main reasons: to make themselves known to Latin American leaders and because in those countries there are hundreds of thousands of Spanish residents who also vote. According to the census of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), as of September 1, in Argentina there are 435,322 Spanish voters; in Uruguay, 59,512; in Chili, 57,240; and in Ecuador40,802.
legal changes
The president of the popular has spent weeks organizing what is going to be his first major international tour, aware that this facet is the least developed. He has chosen this area because he plays with the language advantage (he does not speak English fluently) and because he already knows Uruguay and Argentina. He visited them when he was president of the Government of Galicia. More than a million Galicians emigrated to that second country between the end of the 19th century and until the last decade of the 70s, and it is an obligatory stage for any head of the Xunta.
In fact, Feijóo’s successor in Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, has already traveled to those two countries this October. Recently there have been two new laws that have made voting abroad even more attractive. On the one hand, the suppression of the entire bureaucratic process to be able to exercise this right (the annulment of the so-called “requested vote”) and, on the other, the law of democratic memory It will allow the children and grandchildren of Spanish emigrants to obtain nationality, so that they will be able to vote in the general and regional elections that take place next year.
“Business Forums”
In Uruguay, Feijóo will meet with its president, the conservative Luis Lacalle, whom he already met personally in January 2020, when he had not yet been invested. He will also meet with the former president social democrat Julius Mary Sanguinetti, that was in office between 1985-1990 and 1995-2000. According to PP sources, the leader of the Popular Party will deliver a conference at the Catholic University, in Montevideo. And in the capital and also in the other three countries, he will participate in a “business forums”, of which Genoa has not yet given details.
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In Argentina, he will meet with the mayor of Buenos AiresHoracio Rodríguez Larreta, and with former President Mauricio macri, both from the space farthest to the right of the coalition Together for Change. Interesting combination of quotes at a time when both politicians are in a silent competition over whether they both take the step to run for the primaries. Elections will be in October next year.
In Chili, will meet with the president of the Senate, the socialist Álvaro Elizalde, and the leaders of the center-right coalition Chile Vamos. And in Ecuadorwill meet with the conservator William Lassopresident since May 2021. Feijóo will give two lectures at universities in Santiago and Quito.